Friday, April 11, 2014

HELLBOY: THE FIRST 20 YEARS by MIKE MIGNOLA

Hellboy is one of my all time favourite comic book characters. If you have not experienced the amazing, smart and kick-ass fun of a Hellboy comic you are missing out Wormies.

Go to your local library or bookstore or comic shop and grab the SEED OF DESTRUCTION trade paperback. I guaran-fucking-tee you will love it.

Mike Mignola is a really cool artist and has a genius ability to tell a grand and sweeping tale steeped in history, folklore and mythology. Between the covers of a Hellboy book you will find such enigmatic characters as Abe Sapien, a humanoid amphibious man, Liz Sherman, a pyrokinetic woman. Those are just a couple of the good guys. Then there are the evil bastards!

With a hero like Hellboy you can't have just have your run of the mill bad guys. No sir. They have to be special. Sinister beyond sinister. Wicked beyond wicked. Nazi wicked!

For starters there is Grigori Rasputin, the Master, the evil wizard that is plotting to destroy the world as we know it with the help of other worldly beings called Ogdru Jahad (think H.P. Lovecraft's The Great Old Ones and you get the picture). Another baddy is the goddess Hecate, who wants Hellboy in more ways than one, if you catch my drift. Another female antagonist, and probably my fav of the bunch is the Baba Yaga, a wicked old witch with supernatural powers and a serious grudge on for Hellboy after he takes her eye.

But I digress. There are lots more really cool good guys and bad guys within the grand and epic story that is Mignola's Hellboy. And listen, I haven't even mentioned the spinoffs! There's the B.P.R.D. and ABE SAPIEN. And did I mention LOBSTER JOHNSON? Who's that guy, you say? Read some Hellboy and find out.

Anyway, HELLBOY: THE FIRST 20 YEARS is a collection of some of Mignol's best art from the series so far. It's great stuff. I could look at the beautiful artwork in this book for hours and never get enough. There is something so beautiful and dark about Mignola's Hellboy universe that grabs hold of your imagination like you wouldn't believe.

Honestly, check out SEEDS OF DESTRUCTION. Then grab all the rest of the series and just enjoy what is Hellboy.